The school said Wednesday that Leach had agreed in principle to a
five-year contract. He will be introduced next Tuesday at a news
conference in Pullman.

Terms of the contract were not immediately available.

Leach,
50, posted an 84-43 record at Texas Tech, leading the Red Raiders to 10
bowl appearances in 10 seasons. He was fired in 2009 amid allegations
he mistreated a player with a concussion.

He replaces Paul Wulff, who was fired after four losing seasons.

"I
have always admired the tradition of Washington State," Leach said in a
statement. "It's a university on the move that is experiencing growth.
I'm excited about what they are doing with the facilities and it's a
team that has battled through some hard times and shows great promise in
the future.

"I'm proud to be a part of this team," Leach said.

Leach, in my opinion, was sandbagged by Texas Tech after the son of ESPN college football analyst Craig James accused him of ill treatment. I'll make this as plain as I can -- the elder and younger James should have manned up and kept their mouths shut.

Leach also could have been victimized by Texas Tech's athletic department, which seemed concerned about the salary it might have had to pay Leach because of the run of success he had enjoyed in Lubbock.

Either way, count me among those who are excited to see Leach back in the game.

What’s great for the banks isn’t so good for everyone else, though.
Investment strategists already are noting the desperation of the move,
adding that flooding the banking system with liquidity doesn’t do
anything to solve the real problem of ballooning, unmanageable debt
levels.

“It doesn’t solve the overall problem,” says Robert Pavlik, chief
investment officer with Banyan Partners in New York. “Even if they are
able to stabilize the banks in Europe, they’re almost prevented from
lending because of capital requirements, the unwinding of assets and the
austerity measures. It’ll be like what we saw in the U.S. a few years
ago where they got cheap money but never lent out any of it.”

Paul Nolte, managing director at Chicago-based Dearborn Partners, says
this is just another stop gap that kicks the proverbial can down the
road.

“Debt is the overarching issue. What occurred today does nothing to
reduce levels of debt. It just shifts it different holders,” Nolte says.
“In the short run, the liquidity is a wonderful thing. But in the long
run, you have to repay it in some fashion.”

"We are not bailing out ... Europe," Dallas
Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said in an interview with
Fox Business Network. "We are trying to meet a shortage of dollars."

He
said the action was aimed at making sure there were ample dollars for
those who wanted to buy U.S. products, and that European officials still
needed to address the debt crisis that had led to dollar funding
strains among banks in the region.

"They
need to pull their socks up just like our Congress needs to do and get
their act together and solve the underpinning uncertainty," Fisher said.

The
Dallas Fed chief denied there was a specific triggering event that led
to the coordinated action among the Fed, European Central Bank and the
central banks of Japan, Britain, Switzerland and Canada. "There is no dramatic event," he said.

I defer to those who know the financial industry better than I to report whether Mr. Fisher's comments are legitimate or spin.

A buoyant and defiant Herman Cain took the stage in a hotel ballroom
on Wednesday morning to reassure a group of several hundred supporters
that he would not be getting out of the race for the Republican
nomination, saying, “The American people are going to raise some Cain in
2012!”

Over a roar of approval from the crowd, he added: “They
want you to believe that we can’t do this. They want you to believe that
with enough character assassination on me, I will drop out!”

At this point, there were loud shouts of “No!” from the audience.

Mr. Cain seemed emboldened. “Well, the American people have a different idea.”

After
a more subdued performance and reception by an audience in southern
Michigan last night, Mr. Cain seemed to have regained his footing in
Ohio, campaigning as more of his usual playful and sarcastic self.

This boisterous attitude, demonstration of international politics and political advertising makes for good news coverage, but it doesn't erase the questions mentioned above -- declining popular support and an image suggesting he's been less than gentlemanly.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

But as the Financial Times notes, multiple corporations are hatching contingency plans for how they would need to do business in Europe if the Euro is done away with.

Concerned
that Europe’s political leaders are failing to control the spreading
sovereign debt crisis, business executives say they feel compelled to
protect their companies against a crash that can no longer be wished
away. When German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas
Sarkozy raised the prospect of a Greek exit from the eurozone earlier this month,
it marked the first time that senior European officials had dared to
question the permanence of their 13-year-old experiment with monetary
union.

The risk of a grave economic crisis in Europe
is severe. The threats of sovereign-debt defaults and the break-up of
the European single currency are rising – and with it, the attendant
threats of collapsing banks, popular panic, deep recessions and mass
unemployment. That would indeed feel like a modern version of the Great
Depression.

The European Union, taken as a whole, is the largest economy in the
world – so economic chaos here inevitably has global ramifications. It
would depress trade and threaten the global financial system.

The lesson of the 1930s is that a global depression weakens
democracies, leads to the rise of radical new political forces – and, in
the process, raises the risk of international conflict.

A modern version of the 1930s would see a new generation of
nationalist politicians rise to power in Europe, against a background of
economic chaos and the break-up of the European Union. Tensions would
also rise outside Europe, as the global economic situation worsened. The
balance of power in Asia would shift even faster, with a rising China
facing a weakened America. In both China and America, an economic crisis
would see nationalist and protectionist forces gain influence.

The Washington Post and New York Times are reporting that Herman Cain is reassessing if and how he should remain a Republican presidential candidate.

It's not hard to understand why.

Mr. Cain has had his personal conduct with women questioned multiple times in recent weeks. There have been three allegations of sexual harassment dating to when he was the head of the National Restaurant Association. And then yesterday a Georgia woman made public her claim that she and Mr. Cain had a 13-year affair.

Despite the forceful denials put forth by the campaign's communication offices, the image of Mr. Cain has been tarnished. And it might not be fixable.

His poll numbers have dropped. The enthusiasm for his candidacy has eroded. The potential for him to remain a serious candidate appears gone.

A reassessment could mean abandoning the effort, although there's a forceful denial of that as well.

Lu Qing said four officers came to her Beijing home Tuesday and forced her to come with them to a police station.

She
said many of their questions were about Ai’s design company Beijing
Fake Cultural Development Ltd. Authorities have demanded it pay 15
million yuan ($2.4 million) in back taxes and fines in an ongoing case.

A few years ago the celebrated Chinese artist was a well-established
figure in the international and domestic art worlds; provocative,
certainly, but respectable enough to co-design the Olympic Bird's Nest
stadium in Beijing and be covered by Chinese state media. Then his
outspoken views and activism triggered clashes with authority,
culminating in this year's detention – part of a broader crackdown on
activists, lawyers and dissidents that saw dozens held and more
harassed, threatened or placed under other restrictions. He has become,
to many, the face of human rights in China: more a symbol than a person.

"After security forces gave an ultimatum to
students, the protest ended at the main British compound (in central
Tehran)," the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The students'
news agency ISNA said protesters had also left a second British embassy
compound in north of the capital.

There
were no reports of any aggression against diplomats, the embassy’s main
administrative building or the ambassador’s residence which are all in
the same compound.

Some unconfirmed reports suggested the diplomats
evacuated the embassy.

This was one of the most aggressive attacks ever against the British
embassy, which is considered by hardliners as the leading hostile
foreign mission in Tehran, since Iranian students attacked the US
embassy – the main “den of espionage” - in 1980 and took diplomats
hostage for more than a year.

A British foreign office spokesperson said the UK was “outraged” by
the attack. “It is utterly unacceptable and we condemn it,” the
spokesperson said.

One Iranian news agency said six embassy workers had been taken hostage ,
but withdrew the report from its Web site minutes later with no
explanation, Reuters reported. The semi-official Mehr news agency
initially said: “Students from universities in Tehran took hostage six
people working for the British embassy in Qolhak garden,” referring to
the compound that protesters stormed earlier on Tuesday.

Washington’s
official position is that it wants yet another round of tougher
sanctions to force Iran to come clean about its murky nuclear program.
Beyond that, there is mostly silence and certainly no official
confirmation that America is involved in covert operations aimed against
Iran’s military-industrial complex.

In an interview with the local Fox affiliate
in Atlanta, Ginger White said she met Cain in the 1990s and he invited
her to meet him in Palm Springs. From there, she said, the affair took
off and he flew her to places he was speaking and lavished her with
gifts.

“He made it very intriguing,” White said. “It was fun. It was
something that took me away from my humdrum life at the time. And it was
exciting.

“It wasn't complicated. I was aware that he was
married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate
situation, relationship.”

She also showed the local reporter phone
records that show 61 calls from a number that the reporter later traced
to Cain. The calls were being made as late as September; Cain, who has
acknowledged a relationship with White but not an inappropriate one,
responded to a text message to the phone number but told the reporter he
was helping her financially.

After being criticized for his slow
response to sexual harassment allegations in recent weeks, the
presidential candidate on Monday refuted the story before it came out,
appearing on CNN the hour before White’s interview aired.

There are some valuable lessons here:
1. Free speech is still free speech -- you might not like that the young woman was snarky in her comment about the governor but she had the right to speak her mind, and did.

2. People who think they are doing the right thing often ought to think about what they are doing...and the ramifications of those actions (and I'm not referring to the teenager). The governor's office would have been far better served by letting this go. This story, no matter how the governor's director of communications thought it would be framed, was going to be viewed as the governor picking on a teenager. There is no way, no way and I'll say it again, NO WAY any state leader is going to win that public relations battle.

3. Taking valuable time to identify social media commentary on a governor is not an efficient use of one's time. Yes, I understand the need to combat negative or inaccurate portrayals of such individuals, but the amount of material that can make it into onto Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other such communication mechanisms ensures that only the most serious of negative allegations should be addressed. A teenager's tweet is never going to make that cut.

4. The director of communications ought to resign. And if you can't see why, then think harder.

By 9 a.m., voters had formed long and peaceful lines under the watchful
eyes of a heavy police and army guard to cast votes in rich and poor
neighborhoods across Cairo. In several places, lines stretched as long
as a block along the banks of the Nile, and there were similar reports
from Alexandria and Port Said.

In Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt’s democracy struggle, several
thousand protesters maintained their 10-day occupation to press demands
for the immediate end to military rule. But that did not seem to dampen
the enthusiasm shown by some Egyptians for the vote.

At several polling stations around Cairo, voters reported frustrating
delays of up to four hours because ballots or voter lists or even the
supervising judges had not arrived on time, and a news report said
soldiers fired in the air in at least one of the capital’s slums to
disperse an angry crowd trying to reach a polling station.

For all that, Egyptians displayed little of the pride and exultation
that Tunisians described as they went to the polls for the first vote of
the Arab Spring just one month ago. Instead, voters in Egypt talked of
duty and defiance, of a determination to exercise the rights they
believed their revolution had earned them even though few expressed much
confidence in the integrity of the vote count.

While Egypt moves forward, Syrian leaders appeared committed to standing still. And in this year of the popularly labelled "Arab Spring", that's not good enough. The New York Times explains why.

The Arab League deepened Syria’s
international isolation on Sunday by imposing a battery of economic
sanctions meant to sever most trade and investment from the Arab world,
an unprecedented step against a member state.

The tough measures, aimed at stopping Syria’s bloody crackdown on
dissidents, constitute another blow to the Syrian economy, already
reeling from sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United
States.

They were a psychological jab as much as an economic one, further
eroding Syria’s longstanding claim to be the heart of Arabism, a claim
already battered by the country’s suspension from the league two weeks
ago.

Regime change will come to Syria; one can hope it will not be through significant bloodshed.

An influential member of the Democratic Party is stepping away from politics. Politico sent the following news alert at 10:07 a.m. EST:

Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, the ranking member of the House
Financial Services Committee, will not seek reelection in 2012, his
office has confirmed. Frank is a 16-term Democrat who last year helped
pass the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Frank's
spokesman, Harry Gural, said in a statement that Frank will hold a
conference at 1 p.m. at Newton City Hall in Newton, Mass., to "formally
announce and answer questions about his decision not to run for
reelelection in 2012."

Gural said neither the congressman nor his staff will answer questions before the afternoon press conference.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

"I never witnessed any of the activities that have been alleged' is almost laughable; no one thus far has suggested that the coach saw anything.

"I believe the university took the appropriate step tonight" also says very little. What else could he say? Any public hint that suggests he disagreed with the chancellor's decision to oust Fine certainly would have met with Boeheim also being shown the door.

The university now will be in the media glare as Penn State was just three weeks ago. And any sense that it is resisting telling a complete story will be met by even more questions.

“The
allegations that have come forth today are disturbing and deeply
troubling. I am personally very shocked because I have never witnessed
any of the activities that have been alleged. I believe the university
took the appropriate step tonight. What is most important is that this
matter be fully investigated and that anyone with information be
supported to come forward so that the truth can be found. I deeply
regret any statements I made that might have inhibited that from
occurring or been insensitive to victims of abuse.”

ORIGINAL POST: The Syracuse university basketball program has been a beacon of integrity...and now it is under real stress.

Assistant men's basketball coach Bernie Fine was fired tonight, as the rumors surrounding his purported sexual abuse of at least two boys spirals out of control.

In a tape-recorded 2002 telephone conversation, the wife of Syracuse
associate head coach Bernie Fine admitted she had concerns that her
husband had sexually molested a team ball boy in their home, but said
she felt powerless to stop the alleged abuse.

Bobby Davis,
who has publicly accused Bernie Fine of years of molestation that Davis
said started when he was in the seventh grade, legally recorded his Oct.
8, 2002, phone call to Laurie Fine.

"I know everything
that went on, you know," Laurie Fine said on the call, obtained by
Outside the Lines from Davis. "I know everything that went on with him
... Bernie has issues, maybe that he's not aware of, but he has issues
... And you trusted somebody you shouldn't have trusted ... "

She continued: "Bernie is also in denial. I think that he did the things
he did, but he's somehow through his own mental telepathy has erased
them out of his mind."

Head coach Jim Boeheim forcefully defended his assistant coach a couple weeks ago, so there are undoubtedly going to be questions about what Boeheim knew and when he knew it; and whether he, too, could find himself under pressure as the investigation continues.

If you are thinking at this point that the parallels to this point seem eerily similar to what has unfolded at Penn State, then you are not alone.

Those similarities include:
1. A long-time assistant coach accused of wrong doing;
2. A legendary head coach who seemed oblivious to what took place;
3. Years of abuse;
4. A developing investigation that could lead to multiple people in leadership positions being dismissed

Of course there are some differences, and the most prominent to this point are:
1. Fewer victims (though let's be honest, one is one too many)
2. As yet, no national outrage
3. Syracuse appearing to be more prepared to handle the scandal than Penn State was

Saturday, November 26, 2011

The Chinese government has responded forcefully to a tainted meat scandal, as AFP reports.

The prime suspect, Liu Xiang, received the death sentence with two
years' reprieve on conviction of harming public safety, China Daily
said.

Liu's clandestine workshop producing a carcinogenic chemical
clenbuterol, which is added to pig feed to produce leaner pork, was
seized in Xiangyang city, Henan province in March.Clenbutoral is banned as livestock feed, as it can cause nausea, dizziness, headaches and heart palpitations in human beings.

Liu's collaborator, Xi Zhongjie, was sentenced to life.

The
government employees, including animal health and food safety
inspectors, were handed jail sentences ranging from 3 to 9 years.

The aforementioned China Daily story leaves little doubt that the government is not at all happy.

The main culprit, Liu Xiang, was sentenced to death with two years' reprieve on conviction of harming public safety, it said.

Liu's clandestine workshop producing clenbuterol, a carcinogenic chemical added to pig feed to produce leaner pork, was seized in Henan's Xiangyang city on March 25, 10 days after he was prosecuted, the court said.

With handshakes, sighs and weary smiles, the N.B.A.
and its players resolved a crippling labor dispute, allowing them to
reopen their $4 billion-a-year business in time for the holidays. A
66-game season will start on Christmas Day, ending the second-longest
lockout in league history.

The deal was reached at about 3 a.m. Saturday, on the 149th day of the
lockout, after a final 15-hour bargaining session at the law offices of
Weil, Gotshal and Manges.

“We’ve reached a tentative understanding that is subject to a variety of
approvals and very complex machinations,” the league’s commissioner, David Stern,
said at 3:40 a.m., “but we’re optimistic that that will all come to
pass, and that the N.B.A. season will begin on Dec. 25, Christmas Day,
with a tripleheader.”

The three Christmas games are likely to be the ones that were already on
the schedule: Boston at the Knicks, followed by Miami at Dallas and
Chicago at the Los Angeles Lakers. The rest of the schedule will be
reconstructed and released in the coming days.

But in the end, the people who ought to be smiling the widest about this deal are the people who are going to benefit most -- the men and women who staff the arenas on game night. They are the ones who need the money they get from selling tickets and souvenirs; and serving as ushers more than anyone else.

The billionaires and millionaires might want to remember them as they wrap up this new collective bargaining agreement. Somehow, I doubt they will.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ordered the shutdown of the
Occupy L.A. encampment outside City Hall at 12:01 a.m. Monday, saying
officials can no longer "maintain the public safety of a long-term
encampment," according to a statement issued Friday.

Occupy LA, a 485-tent camp surrounding City Hall, has marched to a
different beat in its drum circle after protesters, police and city
officials established a relationship based on dialogues instead of
dictates.

As camps in other cities degenerated into unrest that
led to mass arrests, Occupy LA has remained largely a peaceful commune.
Police arrive on site only when called in to investigate petty crimes.
Marches have resulted in only about five spontaneous arrests — the other
70 or so involved protesters who deliberately got arrested to make a
political statement.

Universities and colleges are giving $5.3 billion in aid this year to
students who the federal government says don't need financial help,
according to figures from the College Board. ...

Elite universities such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford give aid to
families earning as much as $200,000, which less-selective schools say
puts pressure on them to also offer grants to higher-income families.
Education experts say such subsidies mean less help for lower- and
middle-income students, who fall deeper into debt to pay tuition. ...

Families with incomes up to $180,000 also get tax breaks toward tuition
under the American Opportunity Tax Credit. The credit cost $14.7
billion in 2009, the most recent data available — twice what it cost in
2008. ...

One reason universities do this, according to
financial aid directors and observers, is to vie for applicants with
good grades and high test scores, who often come from affluent
communities with top-rated school systems.

"If they want to increase their rankings in U.S. News & World Report, an easy way to do that is to bribe high-scoring students to come to your university with non-need-based aid," said Richard Kahlenberg, a specialist in education at the Century Foundation.

The critical question surrounding financial aid is this -- should need be determined based on need or merit? How you answer that question affects your response to the USA Today report.

...please be aware that there is an idiot in the store, and she's armed with pepper spray.

The Los Angeles Times sent the following news alert at 4:28 a.m. EST:

A woman who pepper-sprayed other shoppers Thursday night at the Wal-Mart
in Porter Ranch had armed herself with the caustic spray to gain an
advantage in the fight for merchandise at the Black Friday sale, a fire
captain said.
The woman, who is still being sought, used the spray in more than one
area of the Wal-Mart "to gain preferred access to a variety of locations
in the store," said Los Angeles Fire Capt. James Carson.

Friday is often the day of the week in which mass protests are on display in the Arab and Muslim world. And that's certainly expected to be true in Egypt, where the people continue to take to the streets demanding even more political change.

As clashes with the security police stopped for the first time this
week, the crowd in Tahrir Square grew larger on Thursday than the day
before, reaching tens of thousands. A broad spectrum of civilian leaders
— excluding the [Muslim] Brotherhood — joined calls for a “million man march” on
Friday.

The generals were unmoved. “Egypt is not Tahrir Square,” Maj. Gen.
Mukhtar el-Mallah, a member of the military council, declared early
Thursday at a news conference. The generals claimed an open-ended
mandate to hold power long after Monday’s parliamentary vote. “We will
not relinquish power because of a slogan-chanting crowd.”

The declaration, after six days of violent confrontation in the capital
and around the country, shifted the political struggle to a new and
murkier phase.

The people are not giving in, and the military is not giving up. And there is the key difference between the protests now and from those earlier in the year that brought down Mubarak. Then the military sided with the people. Among the outside groups concerned is Human Rights Watch.

The initiative announced (Thursday) at a meeting in Strasbourg,
France, involving German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French
President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti
underscored their failure the past two years to stamp out the
financial crisis. Just yesterday, concerns the euro was at risk
undermined a bond auction in Germany, the biggest euro economy
and until now an investor haven.

The planned treaty changes prepared for a Dec. 9 European
summit involve “the question of a fiscal union, that is a
deepened political cooperation,” Merkel told reporters after
the meeting over lunch. “It’s not about a quid pro quo. It’s
about overcoming the defects in the euro zone’s construction,
step by step.”

Merkel won backing on demanding changes to treaties as a
prerequisite to discussing the issuance of common euro bonds.
She also persuaded Sarkozy to refrain from demanding that the
European Central Bank play a more active role.

“The fiscal union requires rules, it requires mechanisms
for the credible implementation of those rules,” Monti said at
their joint press conference. “Within this context the
stability bonds, as the European Commission called them, may
provide a relevant contribution. Everything is possible within a
sound fiscal union.”

The eurozone debt crisis seems to be heading into its final battle.
Tempers are frayed and the main parties are still pulling in different
directions. While EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is pushing
for Eurobonds, Merkel emphatically rejects the idea. The southern
member states in particular want the European Central Bank (ECB) to be
able to buy up unlimited sovereign bonds, which is, essentially, another
way to make European debt a communal responsibility. But Merkel has
also dismissed that idea.

Much to Merkel's chagrin, even France is sending mixed signals and,
traditionally, the country is more affiliated with the southern European
states anyway. But that is not all - it is not just France that has to
worry about its triple-A credit rating these days, even Germany is not
immune to the debt demons.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

If you are a college football fan, then you know that tonight could
be the end of one of the game's great rivalries -- Texas and Texas
A&M.

With Texas A&M leaving the Big 12
Conference and heading to the SEC, Texas has determined that there is no
room on its non-conference schedule to play the Aggies. Until 2019 at
the earliest.

Yes, it is easy (and convenient) to bash
Texas, suggesting that the Longhorns are displaying that all-too-typical
arrogance that is regularly on display in Austin. The criticism of
Texas can be summarized in one sentence -- the Longhorns are denying
Texas A&M a consistent game to punish the Aggies for leaving the Big
12.

A good argument. But insufficient.

Yes,
I am aware that Texas A&M's athletic department leaders made it
clear they wanted to continue the rivalry. Yes, I am aware that if the
roles had been reversed that Texas' athletic department would be crying
foul very publicly and loudly.

But let's also admit to
reality here -- Texas A&M doesn't deserve a place on any team's
non-conference schedule. By leaving the Big 12 for what they believe
will be greener pastures, the Aggies thumbed their nose at the long-term
relationships involving (among others) Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and
Oklahoma State. It will begin making new rivalries with Mississippi,
Mississippi State, Alabama and others.

Once the heat-of-the-moment tensions are over, there will be an
opportunity for both schools to sit down and reconsider whether the
rivalry should continue. Whether they take advantage of that opportunity
remains to be seen.

Will that happen in time for a game in 2012? I doubt it. But once
the conversations begin (if they do), we'll see whether Texas or Texas
A&M is committed to playing an annual game.

For now, blame both the Longhorns and the Aggies for what what has happened.

Mona Eltahawy – an influential Egyptian-American journalist and blogger and a
columnist for The Jerusalem Report – was beaten and sexually assaulted during a
12-hour detention by Cairo police, she said Thursday.

The 44-year-old
revealed the ordeal on her Twitter account, recounting how she had been
blindfolded for two hours and had her hands broken.

Eltahawy is a prominent women's rights defender, a lecturer on the
role of social media in the Arab world and a former Reuters journalist.
She describes herself as a liberal Muslim who has spoken publicly in the
U.S and other countries against violent Islamic groups, particularly in
the wake of 9/11. She is known as a scathing critic of the former
Egyptian regime.

Eltahawy, a vocal supporter of the Egyptian revolution, has visited
the country at least twice since the January uprising. Known for her
harsh criticism of the regime of the ousted President Hosni Mubarak,
Eltahawy continued to denounce the new military rulers in post-Mubarak
Egypt. She warned in public speeches that one Mubarak has been replaced
with "1,800" others, in reference to the military council.

Earlier this year, CBS reporter Lara Logan was rushed out of Egypt after she was attacked in a crowd as she covered the protests that eventually led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

In a joint statement today, AT&T and T-Mobile announced they have
withdrawn their application to the FCC for the $39 billion transaction
to focus on gaining approval from the DOJ through trial or a settlement.
AT&T said it intends to take a $4 billion pre-tax accounting charge
- $3 billion in cash and $1 billion in spectrum - "to reflect the
potential break up fees due Deutsche Telekom in the event the
transaction does not receive regulatory approval."

Ľubomír Galko, a nominee of the Freedom and
Solidarity (SaS) party, has been fired as the country’s defence
minister. Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radičová asked President Ivan
Gašparovič to dismiss Galko on the heels of a scandal over the Military
Defence Intelligence (VOS), which operates under the Ministry of
Defence, and its interception of the telephone calls of journalists.
Announcing Galko’s dismissal on November 23, Radičová and Gašparovič
said they did not know who would replace him as defence minister but
stated they would meet soon to discuss the issue.

Attorney
Joe Amendola said the allegations stem from difficulties within the
child's immediate family. He said the assault is alleged to have
occurred prior to Sandusky's arrest earlier this month, but was not
brought to the authorities attention until after the former Penn State
coach was charged.

The Patriot-News is withholding the child's relationship to Sandusky to shield the child's identity.

Mr. [Mike] McQueary testified that he witnessed Jerry Sandusky sexually
assaulting a boy in the shower of a Penn State locker room on March 1,
2002, according to a grand jury presentment released by the state
attorney general's office. Mr. Sandusky has been charged with molesting
eight boys over a 15 year period. He denies the charges.

Mr. McQueary, who has not been charged in connection with the
investigation, also testified that he told former Penn State football
coach Joe Paterno about the incident and later described the event to
two other university officials.

Tim Curley, the university's former athletic director, and former
vice president Gary Schultz have each been charged with one count of
perjury in connection with their grand jury testimony and one count of
failure to report sexual abuse. Both men have denied the charges through
their attorneys and not commented on the case or the charges. A letter
sent by lawyers their lawyers, Thomas J. Farrell and Caroline Roberto,
to the Pennsylvania attorney general's office and obtained by The Wall
Street Journal reveals a key part of their defense strategy.

China’s factory sector shrank the most in 32 months in November on
signs of domestic economic weakness, a preliminary PMI survey showed,
reviving worries that China may be slipping towards a hard landing and
fuelling fears of a global recession.

The steep fall in the HSBC
flash purchasing managers’ index (PMI) to 48 in November from 51 in
October largely reflected domestic weakness as both output and new
orders shrank even as export orders continued to grow.

Markets reeled at midday on the release of weak Chinese manufacturing
data, adding to the selling pressure already being felt by Australian
resources stocks -- including the behemoths BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto
-- thanks in part to the passage of the mining tax.

The worry was
compounded on reports yesterday afternoon that the governments of
Belgium, France and Luxembourg were seeking information on how much
money Belgium bank Dexia needs as it loses access to funding markets,
rekindling fears on global trading desks of a 2008 Lehman Brothers-style
moment in financial markets, when credit markets froze. Amid warnings
from Westpac chief Gail Kelly, reported in The Australian yesterday,
that Australia was not immune from the disease spreading through
financial markets, markets were yesterday rocked by data from China
indicating that a key manufacturing index had hit a 32-month low.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has told him he will travel to New York for medical treatment after signing an agreement to end his 33-year rule.

Ban
told reporters Wednesday that he talked with Saleh by telephone, and
would be happy to meet with him in New York. He provided no information
about when Saleh planned to arrive in New York, nor what treatment he
would be seeking.

You might recall an assassination attempt in June left him injured and required a near three-month stay in Saudi Arabia for treatment.

The French news media, stung by criticism of its previous hands-off
approach to the private lives of Mr. Strauss-Kahn and other politicians,
has been following the Carlton Affair [in which DSK was linked to a prostitution ring] with zeal.

Even text messages, allegedly exchanged between Mr. Strauss-Kahn and
associates, in which they appear to discuss plans for nights on the town
in cities like Vienna, Madrid and Washington, have found their way into
the papers this time around.

Yet French privacy protections are among the strictest in the Western
world. The Constitution guarantees a right to privacy, as does the
European Convention on Human Rights.

While the specifics of these rights are not spelled out under French
law, the courts have often interpreted laws in a way that favors public
officials seeking to keep their affairs under wraps.

Thomas Roussineau, a lawyer here who specializes in privacy issues, said
the lawsuits against newspapers could become benchmark cases in
defining the relationship between public figures and the news media in
France.

Under existing interpretations of the law, he said, there are generally
only two permitted exceptions to public officials’ privacy protection.
One is if the events in question have some bearing on an official’s
ability to carry out his or her job; the other is if the person has
volunteered information.

Because Mr. Strauss-Kahn is no longer a public official and did not seek
disclosure, Mr. Roussineau said it could be difficult for the
publications to prove either exception in their reporting on the Carlton
Affair.

“D.S.K. is nothing anymore, so you do really have to ask yourself the
question seriously, whether anyone had a right to know about this,” he
said.

In the blink of a news cycle, DSK went from being a victim of
overzealous Manhattan prosecutors and police with a future in France to a
disgraced and disliked pol. His name has come up in a French police
investigation into a prostitution ring. His Socialist friends shun him.
Anne Sinclair, the wealthy wife who stood by him in New York, is off
alone at their riad-style house in Morocco, rethinking her future with
him, according to her biographer. In a recent poll the French named him
the least liked politician in the land, with 71% holding an unfavorable
view. Days after his arrest in New York, 57% said they thought he was
set up.

Prior to this week, the University of California-Davis was one of the out-of-the-spotlight but bright stars of the UC system. Now, it -- and more especially its chancellor -- are under an intense media focus after a university police officer pepper sprayed a group of student protesters.

Video footage of Lt. John Pike and another officer casually spraying
an orange cloud at the protesters as they sat peacefully on the ground
began circulating online Friday night. Students gathered on campus
Tuesday for the second time in as many days to condemn the violence.
They also urged university officials to require police to attend
sensitivity training.

Chancellor Linda Katehi, who has faced
criticism from students, faculty and staff in recent days, told some
1,000 students gathered in an auditorium that she asked police to remove
tents from the university's quad but did not direct them to forcibly
remove the demonstrators.

"I explicitly directed the chief of
police that violence should be avoided at all costs," she said. "It was
the absolute last thing I ever wanted to happen."

She stressed that students have a right to demonstrate peacefully.

"Because
encampments have long been prohibited by UC policy, I directed police
only to take down the tents," she said. "My instructions were for no
arrests and no police force."

Yet not all students who attended the town hall in a performing arts complex were satisfied with the response from Katehi.

Left unanswered, therefore, is who -- if it was not Dr. Katehi -- approved the use of the pepper spray? And could the lieutenant have acted on his own?

The university has honored Pike twice for exceptional police work,
including a 2006 incident in which he tackled a scissors-wielding
hospital patient who was threatening other officers.

But an alleged antigay slur by Pike also figured in a racial and
sexual discrimination lawsuit that a former police officer filed against
the department, which ended in a $240,000 settlement in 2008.

Officer Calvin Chang's 2003 discrimination complaint against the university's
police chief and the UC Board of Regents claimed that he had been
systematically marginalized as the result of antigay and racist
attitudes on the force. He specifically claimed that Pike had described
him using an antigay epithet.

Pike did not immediately return a message left Tuesday at a home address listed in Roseville (Placer County).

Records show Pike joined the Marines in November 1989, and by the time he left, he had been promoted to sergeant.

The
French 10-year yield is at 3.4%, about midway between toprated Holland
and Belgium, which is graded one level lower at Aa1 by Moody's. French
borrowing costs are more than a percentage point above the AAA-rated UK.
"France is not trading like a AAA," said Bill Blain, a strategist at
Newedge Group in London. "The market has made its judgment already." The debt crisis that began more than two years ago in Greece and snared Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain is close to reaching France.

All the judges in Penn
State's home county removed themselves from potentially presiding over
the child sex-abuse case against former assistant football coach Jerry
Sandusky and will be replaced by outside jurists, the Pennsylvania court
system announced Thursday.

The Administrative
Office of Pennsylvania Courts said in a news release that the four
Centre County Common Pleas Court judges bowed out "to avoid any
appearance of conflict of interest due to real or perceived connections"
to Sandusky, the university or the charity for at-risk children
Sandusky founded.

John M. Cleland, a senior
judge from McKean County, was appointed to take over the case, although
another judge, Kathy A. Morrow, was named to handle matters until he can
assume jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, the attorney for Jerry Sandusky -- the former Penn State assistant football coach accused of multiple counts of sexual assault of children -- says he doesn't like the way the media have labeled the now young men who claim they were abused. As CBS Sports notes, the attorney took his case, so to speak, to a morning television program.

"[P]eople
when they're brought into the criminal justice system and they're
labeled as victims, they're pampered, they're encouraged, they're
treated specially. And particularly when you're dealing with maybe
someone who hasn't had a great, the greatest of lives. Then a lot of
times they start feeling more important," Amendola said in the
interview.

Amendola's most specific comments about the alleged
victims were directed at whom the Pennsylvania grand jury describes as
Victim 1, saying those accusations were a negative reaction to
Sandusky's demands for harder work toward unspecified goals.

"When
you push and they don't want you to," Amendola said, "they react. And
what Jerry believes happened is that this young guy got tired of Jerry
pushing. Jerry believes that what happened was this young guy said, 'you
know what, gee, if I say Jerry did something to me, that's the end of
my relationship with Jerry.'"

It was inevitable -- someone who once worked at Penn State would become the first person to be interviewed for a story in which the public learns about the less-flattering side of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.

Mind you, I'm not suggesting what is reported in this USA Today story or in this Wall Street Journal story is accurate (or inaccurate, for that matter); rather, I'm saying that such stories were going to be reported as soon as possible now that Paterno has been fired for his handling of the sexual assault scandal at the university.

People ask, how could this go on for so long? I think Sandusky was
secretly enabled by some of these people, who knew, kept silent and were
interested in protecting their interests. I hope the next phase of the
grand jury investigation focuses on the cover up.

Harrisburg Patriot-News reporter Sara Ganim, who
broke the story of the grand jury investigation in March, worked here in
Centre County for several years. We compared notes on the Sandusky
issue. She did fine work and deserves the boatload of awards that will
probably be coming her way. We both knew the truth of the story was in
Harrisburg with the grand jury. The Patriot-News, to its credit, gave her the time necessary to work on the story.

Why couldn't I report it? I didn't have the time to get the
needed verification to move the story ahead or to convince my bosses
it's not a rumor, but a real story. It's just the nature of my
particular job. I'm a one-man band, expected to crank out several
stories a day. I may get a day or two to work on a large story, but not
the time afforded to Ganim.

I could write a book about covering Penn State. You start
with its dual nature. For years, if you wanted salaries or other
financial information, the response was, we're a private institution.
But when it comes to requesting state and federal financial assistance,
then it's, oh my, we're a public college.

Now, before anyone accuses me of being a Paterno apologist, please get your facts/opinions straight. I repeat, I am not attempting to elevate Paterno to saintly status, and I'm not seeking to undermine the credibility of the people who are speaking out against him.

Rather, I am saying that it was only a matter of time before these kinds of stories were disseminated. I leave it to each person to decide if they assist us in learning what Paterno was like as a person, as a coach, as a leader and as a man of character.

If I were to agree to help any of my friends out of the financial
pressures they face...and we set a deadline to get those decisions
made...then fail to reach those goals, then we would have one more year
to figure it out. Right?

Monday, November 21, 2011

I quote in full here the section of this week's Big East Conference football press release that examines the current tie-breaker system needed to determine the conference's champion.

Rutgers• Would clinch share of title with win at Connecticut Saturday.• Would clinch outright title with a win at Connecticut and a Louisville loss to USF, at least one loss by Cincinnati and a loss by the Pittsburgh/West Virginia winner.• Can clinch share of title with a loss to Connecticut and a Louisville loss to USF, at least one loss by Cincinnati and a loss by the Pittsburgh/West Virginia winner.• Holds tiebreaker advantages over Cincinnati and Pittsburgh; loses tiebreakers with Louisville and West Virginia

Louisville• Would clinch share of title with win at USF Friday.• Would clinch outright title with a win at USF and a Rutgers loss to Connecticut, at least one loss by Cincinnati and a loss by the Pittsburgh/West Virginia winner.• Can clinch share of title with a loss to USF and a Rutgers loss to Connecticut, at least one loss by Cincinnati and a loss by the Pittsburgh/West Virginia winner.• Holds tiebreaker advantages over Rutgers and West Virginia; loses tiebreakers with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

West Virginia• Would clinch share of title with two wins (vs. Pittsburgh, at USF).• Can clinch share of title with one loss and losses by Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.• Holds tiebreaker advantages over Cincinnati and Rutgers; loses tiebreaker with Louisville.

Cincinnati• Would clinch share of title with two wins (at Syracuse, vs. Connecticut).• Can clinch share of title with one loss and losses by Rutgers, Louisville and the West Virginia/Pittsburgh winner.• Holds tiebreaker advantages over Louisville and Pittsburgh; loses tiebreakers with Rutgers and West Virginia.

Pittsburgh• Would clinch share of title with two wins (at West Virginia, vs. Syracuse).• Can clinch share of title with one loss and losses by Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati and West Virginia.• Holds tiebreaker advantage over Louisville; loses tiebreakers with Cincinnati and Rutgers.

Connecticut• Can clinch share of title with two wins (vs. Rutgers, at Cincinnati) a Louisville loss to USF and a loss by the Pittsburgh/West Virginia winner.

The bottom line -- what a mess. But sorting through it, one notices that as of now only Rutgers and Louisville can win the title outright.

What follows is by necessity an educated guess (which also means I could be made out to be a fool by Saturday night). But for now, let's project how the BCS bowls will be stocked.

SUGAR BOWL:
Michigan vs Houston -- The cries of anguish from Boise, Idaho, go unnoticed. Sugar Bowl officials are desperately hoping they don't end with up with Michigan and West Virginia. The over/under on the Rich Rod jokes would be about 10,463,924.

FIESTA BOWL:
Oklahoma State vs Stanford -- A no-brainer if both teams end their seasons with wins.

ORANGE BOWL:
Virginia Tech vs West Virginia -- The road the ACC champion takes here looks rather clear; for the Big East champion, it's filled with too many tiebreakers to count. The Orange Bowl committee could opt for Houston, which would then send West Virginia to New Orleans.

ROSE BOWL:
Wisconsin vs Oregon -- The Grandaddy of Them All is as it should be, the Big 10 playing the Pac-12.

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:
LSU vs Alabama -- The rematch the south really wants, but about which the rest of America appears torn.

György Matolcsy, the finance minister, told Parliament that in returning
to the IMF, the country was seeking a “safety net” utterly unlike the
standby loan Hungary walked away from last spring. “The situation is
completely different,” he said, “because we are starting discussions
about a financial safety net from which we don’t want to draw down a
single penny.” That suggested he was seeking a loan without too many
conditions attached. However, such favourable terms may not be
forthcoming. The IMF offers loans with few strings attached to countries
with sound finances that are in temporary difficulties. But few see
Hungary’s troubles in such a benign light.

EuroNews takes a closer look at what the government's decision means in this report:

Hungary's governing Fidesz party has submitted a bill to parliament
that would hold the opposition Socialists accountable for crimes
committed by the former communist party before 1989.

"The
Hungarian state cannot be based on the sins of the communist regime,"
according to the bill put forward late Sunday, according to national
news agency MTI.

"Due to the personal continuity binding the
leadership of the old and the new party," the Socialists (MSZP) should
be held accountable for the actions of the former communist regime,
which has until now escaped scrutiny, it added.

The bill, which
will be included in the constitution if passed, describes the former
communist party - the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) - and
its successors as "criminal organisations."

When the country's new constitution takes effect on January 1, "there will be an opportunity to do justice," it says.

I don't think the IMF would link any decisions about a new loan to the government ignoring the Communist era, but it might provide for interesting conversation.

The French government turned aside concerns expressed today by Moody's, which suggested France cannot sustain its credit rating because of a lingering fears that it will fall victim to the debt crisis affecting other European nations. The Wall Street Journal analyzes the situation.

Moody's had already warned in October that the country's
creditworthiness and the stable outlook on its triple-A rating were
under pressure from high debts and deficits, as well as the possibility
France may have to grant further support to its banks or other euro zone
countries.

On Monday, the ratings firm added that a widening of France's
borrowing costs would further compromise the government's efforts.

The idea of France losing its triple-A rating would have implications
beyond Paris. It would signal that the euro zone crisis had spread to
core members, and that its effects could no longer be contained to
peripheral nations like Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Spain and Italy
have also seen their borrowing costs rising significantly. The yields on
Spanish 10-year bonds rose 0.16 percentage point, to 6.472 percent, on
Monday, while the yield on Italian 10-year bonds held steady at 6,624
percent. Yields above 6 percent set off alarm bells in markets because
of fears that they are unsustainable.

“Elevated borrowing costs persisting for an extended period would
amplify the fiscal challenges the French government faces amid a
deteriorating growth outlook, with negative credit implications,”
Moody’s said.

Officials are working hard to bulk up the euro zone’s bailout fund, the
European Financial Stability Facility, to around €1 trillion, $1.35
trillion, but that task would be dealt a huge blow were France to lose
its top-notch credit rating.

The French government will provide a large guarantee to the fund — €158
billion — and a reduction of its credit rating could sway euro zone
leaders to abandon the idea of pumping up the fund to buy troubled
countries’ bonds, effectively bringing down their borrowing costs, and
switch to a more radical set of proposals.

At this point, Germany is the only Euro nation that appears exempt from fears that it can fall into debt despair. Whether these fears for the rest of the Euro community are legitimate or simply a lingering reflection of the global recession remains to be seen.

Even before this month's clashes between
government forces and protestors in Cairo, which have killed at least 33
people since Saturday, Egypt was heading toward monetary turmoil as the
central bank battled to keep the pound stable by running down its
foreign exchange reserves.

The
recent violence, which calls into question whether Egypt can smoothly
hold parliamentary elections beginning next week, is likely to increase
pressure on the reserves and may bring a full-blown crisis forward to
the next several months from the late-2012 tipping point previously
predicted by some analysts.

"Even
in advance of recent events we were very concerned about the balance of
payments and the burn-through in reserves," said Farouk Soussa, Middle
East chief economist at Citigroup.

Thousands of Egyptian
protesters remain in Cairo's Tahrir Square after two days of clashes in
which at least 13 people were killed and hundreds injured.

On Sunday, police and troops made a violent attempt to evict
the demonstrators, firing tear gas and beating them with truncheons.

However, the protesters returned less than an hour later, chanting slogans against Egypt's military rulers.

The European Union said it condemned the violence "in the strongest terms".

There were also clashes in other cities including Alexandria, Suez and Aswan.

A key member of the European Union also has weighed in on the crisis. Catherine Ashton, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, released the following statement (which I quote in full);

"I am extremely concerned at the riots and violent clashes witnessed in Egypt, notably in Tahrir square over the weekend. I deplore the loss of life and the many injuries and express my solidarity with the families of the victims.

I urge calm and restraint and condemn the use of violence in the strongest terms. There is no doubt that the transitional process is a difficult and challenging one. I have expressed my concern in the past about the emergency law and the ongoing military trials. I reiterate that the interim authorities and all parties concerned have the crucial task of listening to the people and protecting their democratic aspirations.

Law and order must be ensured in a manner respectful of human rights. Citizens and political parties' demands that the transition moves forward and safeguards the principles of democracy must be listened to.

As Egypt prepares to go to the polls, in its first democratic and transparent elections, I remain confident that the Egyptian people and the authorities will find the way to move peacefully forward and succeed in overcoming the challenges."

The military-led government’s attempts to beat back or squash the
protests appeared to only redouble their strength. After using tear gas,
rubber bullets and birdshot to beat back a day of continuous attacks on
the headquarters of the Interior Ministry, hundreds of soldiers and
security police in riot gear stormed the square from several directions
at once about 5 p.m., raining down rocks and tear gas as they drove
thousands of demonstrators out before them.

But after less than half an hour they had retreated, having succeeded
only in burning down a few tents in the middle of the square. And after
another half an hour, the crowd of protesters had more than doubled,
packing the square as ever more demonstrators marched in from all
directions, chanting for the end of military rule.